This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance. In mid-April, the Trump administration cleared the way for a controversial copper mine proposed for western Arizona. The mine would destroy…
The Madeira River, the largest tributary of the Amazon, has been losing water flow over the last 20 years while facing severe droughts.
This is the second of three interviews with Indigenous representatives at the United Nations about the latest issues in their country's Amazon forests. Read the interview about the Peruvian Amazon…
This is the first of three interviews with Indigenous representatives at the United Nations about the latest issues in their country's Amazon forests. Read the interview about the Colombian Amazon…
The intensifying security crisis in parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the years is undermining wildlife protection in Virunga National Park, say officials and local residents.…
ARAÇUAÍ, Brazil — It’s a sunny, cloudless morning in the Poço Dantas when a sudden loud blow shakes the ground of Maria Aparecida’s* house. A few kilometers away, a cloud…
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s national human rights commission has found a slew of legal and rights violations in a government-backed project to establish large-scale plantations in the eastern region of Papua.…
One morning in early April 2024, Elías Naal Hernández set out with his fishing net to try his luck in the waters of Isla Aguada, off the coast of southeastern…
“For me, the 100th anniversary of Virunga National Park is the fruit of resistance. A peaceful resistance led by local activists [and] environmentalists,” says François Kamaté, environmental activist and founder…
KAPILVASTU, Nepal — At his fish pond near his home in Krishnanagar Municipality in western Nepal’s Kapilvastu, Imtehaj Khan closely watches a large TV screen mounted on a wall. For…
MANTANGAI, Indonesia — The last time Remie recalled a good harvest season here in Central Kalimantan province was in 2018, when 20-liter bags of rice seed were piled against the…
In the heart of the Colombian Amazon, the towering mountains of the Serranía del Chiribiquete harbor secrets including South America’s oldest rock art. The remote site was off-limits and poorly…
In July 2024, Maung Tu, 40, a manager at a mining company, purchased a betel nut farm of 2.4 hectares, or 6 acres, near the southern tip of Myanmar for…
COLOMBO — The Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar have long served as rich fishing grounds, providing bountiful harvests to Sri Lanka’s northern coastal communities. However, fishing activity in…
Mongabay followed the steps of Adriano Aguiar de Castro, who, according to authorities, jumped from one gold laundering scheme to another and now is also involved with gold smuggling into Venezuela.
This is the second part of a three-part series on underreported issues involving Canadian mining companies and Indigenous peoples or local communities. Read part one here. Shrouded in the lush…
Illegal gold miners have been moving into Amapá in the wake of federal raids on mining hotspots in other parts of the Brazilian Amazon, including the Yanomami and Munduruku Indigenous territories.
A Mongabay investigation that revealed an illegal cattle boom amid a record-high number of killings of Indigenous Guajajara has been cited by Brazilian authorities to remove thousands of head of cattle from the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in the Amazon Rainforest.
BARDIYA, Nepal — Ram Raj Dhakal, 22, jolts awake to an alert on his phone. A wild elephant has strayed into a village near Thakurdwara, on the fringes of Bardiya…
As REDD projects around the world face setbacks, restoration projects in the Amazon are flourishing as a means of reviving market confidence in forest-based carbon credits.
Villagers in Cameroon have denounced the use of tear gas by authorities to break up their protest on March 25 against the replanting of oil palm trees by the plantation…
Brazil's Supreme Court backed down and withdrew its proposal to open up Indigenous territories to mining and economic activities from a controversial bill that critics say violates the Constitution.
Brazil’s plans to build ports and roads to help move grains, beef and iron ore from the rainforest echo a development vision that dates back to the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s.
JAKARTA — Hundreds of Indigenous people and civil society groups in Indonesia are demanding an end to government projects that have seized their lands, fueled violence, and stripped them of…
KIMANA, Kenya — Lush, fertile and green, the Laikipia highlands of Kenya are renowned for their beauty and abundant grasses that feed its wildlife and livestock. They’re also the theater…
Presented in February by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes, a draft bill violates Indigenous people's constitutional rights by stripping their veto power against impactful activities on their ancestral lands and adding further obstacles to an already long land demarcation process.
Mongabay went to Pará state’s southwest and found examples of people struggling to keep sustainable initiatives in a region dominated by soy, cattle, gold and logging.
An ongoing federal highway project that will cross through protected areas and Indigenous lands in Peru’s Amazon is facing mounting concerns by Indigenous leaders and legal experts. Meant to help…
The resurgence of the M23 (March 23 movement) rebel group has once again drawn global attention to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The humanitarian crisis—millions displaced, thousands…
JAKARTA — The Indonesian Supreme Court has upheld a government decision to curb the expansion of a multibillion-dollar oil palm plantation project in the country’s easternmost region of Papua. In…
Journalist Alex Cuadros’s latest book, “When We Sold God’s Eye: Diamonds, Murder, and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon” tells the story of how an Indigenous group in Brazil was forced to reckon with Western culture.
After Israel and the de facto government of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, agreed to a ceasefire beginning Jan. 19, Gaza’s olive farmers headed back to what’s left of their Khan…
